The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Lichfield (now)
Parish church
Longnor is a small town, little bigger than a village but with its own
market square and market hall. It is in NE Staffordshire, half a mile from the
river Dove that forms the border with Derbyshire and built on a ridge between
the valleys of the Dove and the Manifold. As early as 1300 the open fields
along the Dove valley and the steeper land running down to the Manifold were in
use as pasture land. The present church is a rebuilding in grey stone of
1780-81 and consists of nave and a W tower. The nave is a broad and rectangular
with an altar at the E and no separate chancel. In 1812
the walls were raised to allow the insertion of galleries at the W and S. Gallery-level windows were added at the same time -
round-headed like those below them. A false ceiling was installed in 1948-49 as
part of a general post-war restoration, so the upper windows are visible only
on the exterior. The W gallery was converted into a
meeting room in 1996. The tower is contemporary with the nave, and has
projecting quoins and an embattled
parapet with pinnacles at the angles. This is
apparently the third church on the site. The previous two were Chapels of Ease
to Alstonefield; the first of unknown date, probably 12thc., and the second a
16thc. new build. The Tudor church had become unsafe by 1730 and was derelict
by the 1770s. The only Romanesque feature is the
font.
Parish church
Hodnet is a village about five miles SW of Market Drayton. The church lies to the W of the village and consists of a 14thc nave added to the original 12thc S aisle: the S aisle originally functioned as the nave, with N aisle being added in 14thc. Remains of round-headed 12thc windows are found in the S wall of the current S aisle. An octagonal W tower was added to the end of the nave in the 14thc. The building was restored in 1846-7. The only Romanesque surviving sculpture is the octagonal font located at W end of the S aisle.
Parish church, redundant
Woodcote is a village of a few houses and farm buildings, 2 miles S of Newport in the NE of the county, close to the Staffordshire border. The main building in the village is Woodcote Hall, originally the seat of the Cotes family. The hall was rebuilt for Charles Cecil Cotes in 1875 by F. P. Cockerell after a fire destroyed the earlier building, and it is now a residential care home. The church stands in its grounds, some 50 metres S of the hall and was made redundant in 2003. It is a small sandstone ashlar chapel with a tiled roof with gabled ends, coved eaves and an open bell turret on the W gable. The single cell building has nave and chancel in one. It was restored in 1883-84 when a N vestry was added and the E wall rebuilt. The only Romanesque feature is the late-12thc S doorway.
Parish church
Seighford is a small village only 2½ miles NW of the centre of Stafford. St Chad's is a curious mixture of brick and stone building. he W tower is of red brick and 17thc., with brick clasping buttresses and stone pinnacles added in 1748. This, or something like it, is also the date of the brick nave, but the chancel and the N nave aisle and its eastward extension to form a N chapel are of stone. The tower was built in the western bay of the nave, so that the W bay of the four-bay N arcade is alongside it. This end of the aisle has now been converted for use as a kitchen and lavatory. The arcade itself is 12thc. and the nave has no clerestory. The chancel arch is also 12thc., but the chancel contains a 13thc. piscina and nothing earlier. The arch to the N chapel is segmental and very broad, presumably rebuilt. The responds supporting it are Perpendicular (Pevsner reports the W respond as EE). The chapel is now occupied by the organ, with a vestry to the E. There are two antiquarian view of the church in the William Salt Library. A sepia wash drawing of 1838 by T. P. Wood shows its elevated position well in a distant view from the N (SV VIII 155a), and another sepia wash drawing by Buckler shows the church from the SE (SV VIII 156). Both show the building much as it is today. The only Romanesque features are the N nave arcade and the chancel arch.
Parish church
The town of Shifnal lies 3 miles E of Telford. The church, built of red sandstone, is on the SW side of the town. The nave of the church was substantially rebuilt during the restorations of 1876-79, when the aisles may have been added; the 13thc S porch remains. The crossing tower is of c.1300. The chancel has 14thc additions to the E and S and an additional c.1300 chancel arch.
Romanesque elements date from the late 12thc and include parts of the chancel: two 12thc windows in the N wall with decoration both on the interior and exterior; a chancel arch with sculptural decoration behind the later one. The S transept is also substantially 12thc with sculptural decoration on the S transept arch leading into the S chancel chapel, on the 12thc window on the W wall, now the E end of the S aisle, as well as remains of the doorway on the S wall of the S transept.
Parish church
Sheriffhales is a scattered village in the E of the county, 4 miles NE of Telford and a similar distance S of Newport. The church stands in the village centre, which is towards the S of the parish. It consists of a 13thc chancel, a 12thc nave with a 14thc N aisle, and a tower rebuilt in 1723, reusing a 14thc W window. The only Romanesque feature is the tower arch; puzzling in that its capitals indicate a later-12thc date while the arch itself is pointed and deeply chamfered, suggesting a 13thc date.
Parish church
Selattyn is a village in the NW of the county, a mile from the Welsh border and 3 miles N of Oswestry, The church is in the centre of the village and consists of a 13thc nave and chancel, 18thc tower, 19thc N aisle, N and S transepts. There is a font at W end of the nave close to S doorway. It probably dates from the 12thc or early 13thc.
Parish church
Blithfield takes its name from the river Blythe, a tributary of the Trent, and is some 8 miles E of the centre of Stafford and 4 miles N of Rugeley. There is no village any longer; all that remains are the hall, the church and the old rectory (damaged by fire in 1962 and rebuilt into apartments in the 1980s). The old village disappeared, probably in the 16thc. or 17thc., to allow the extension of parkland for the hall. The Blythe itself was dammed in 1953 to form Blithfield Reservoir, over two miles long and half a mile wide, and now a centre for wildlife and leisure activities as well as a source of water for S Staffordshire.St Leonard's is of pinkish grey sandstone and consists of a nave with aisles and a tall clerestory, a chancel with a polygonal N vestry and a W tower. The four-bay nave arcades are mid-13thc. work, with cylindrical piers, moulded capitals and pointed arch with chamfered
orders. The aisle windows are 14thc. square-headed double lights and there is a S doorway with a porch by Street (1860). The nave was heightened and the tall clerestory added around 1500. The chancel is ofc.1300 or slightly later, with Y-tracery windows and ogee tracery in the piscina. In the S wall outside is a niche tomb that has been identified as that of Richard de Blithfield, rector fromc.1185-1234. On the N side of the chancel, the polygonal vestry dates from 1829-30. It was built as a mortuary chapel for the Bagot family, and is liberally supplied with Bagot memorials. Other Bagot tombs stand in the chancel itself. The W tower is of two storeys, 14thc. below and 15thc. above with diagonal buttresses and a battlemented parapet. The chancel was restored to Pugin's designs in 1851, and the work included replacing the timber roof and the E window. An attractive, simplified S view ofc.1770 in the William Salt Library (SV II 53) shows the church without its porch and apparently lacking a chancel roof. In Buckler's 1824 SE view (SV II 46) the porch is also lacking and the chancel is heavily overgrown with creeper. His NE view of the same year (SV II 48) shows the N side before the polygonal mortuary chapel was added. Other antiquarian views are noted in the bibliography. The church contains a 12thc. pillar piscina that has been ingeniously converted for use as an offertory box, and is thus prominently sited opposite the S nave doorway.
Parish church
Yoxall was built along the river Swarbourn, which runs from N to S here. It was on the edge of the Needwood Forest, which was not enclosed until the 19thc. Its main street is now the A515 from Lichfield to Ashbourne and the church stands back from this in a spacious churchyard. St Peter's is mostly by Woodyer of 1865-68 and has an aisled nave with a clerestorey, a chancel with N and S chapels and a W tower. The nave is spacious with five-bay
arcades in a Decorated style and a clerestorey with square-headed quadruple lights. The S doorway is genuinely medieval and of c.1200 and has no porch; the N is 19thc. The chancel chapels are both of two bays, and the N now contains the organ. The W tower has a battlemented parapet and tall crocketed finials. Drawings predating Woodyer's restoration show a similarly aisled nave, apparently without a clerestorey and with no N porch; a very similar W tower and a much lower chancel without chapels. The only feature included here is the S doorway.The present hexagonal font is Woodyer's, but a drawing by Buckler of 1839 shows a slender, neo-classical font with a baluster
shaft (William Salt Library SV XII 153b).
Parish church
Ellesmere is a small market town in the NW of the county, less than 3 miles S of the border with the Welsh county of Denbigh. The town is immediately W of The Mere - one of the largest glacial meres in the country outside the Lake District. The church stands close to this lake at the E end of the town. It has a 19thc. nave. The N nave arcade incorporates remains of the late 12thc. arcade. Crossing tower 13thc., Perpendicular top. N transept doorway c.1200, decorated with sculpture. 14thc. chancel and S chapel. The church was extensively rebuilt and restored by George Gilbert Scott in 1849, further restoration work being caried out in 1881, 1889 and 1900.